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The Empire of Pain
The Empire of Pain 'was a professional wrestling stable in the WWE. The group most recently comprised of James Harrison, Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns, Jey Uso, Jimmy Uso and Ana Sanchez. Harrison originally formed the stable at the St. Valentine's Day Massacre pay-per-view in February 1999 he was joined by Stone Cold Steve Austin, Viscera and The Rock. The original incarnation of the group are regularly considered one of the greatest stables of all-time. The group have had the gimmick of a dominate street gang and were noted for vicious backstage attacks and brutal matches. They reformed for a one-off on WWE Raw 1000 on July 23, 2012 with the original four members. The group most recently reformed on the July 27, 2015 episode of Monday Night ''Raw ''as a team of five before Cesaro on ''Raw ''before SummerSlam. All six current members walked out of SummerSlam with championship gold. Harrison retained his WWE United States Championship, Ambrose and Reigns won the WWE Tag Team Championship, Cesaro won the vacant Million Dollar Championship, Natalya won both the WWE Divas and WWE Women's Championship and Orton cashed in Money in the Bank and won the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. The immense early success of Harrison, Ambrose, Reigns, Cesaro and Orton led many to debate whether the current incarnation including the Usos are better than the original. Ana Sanchez joined on November 23, 2015 on ''Raw ''. The group officially broke up again when Dean Ambrose attempted to attack Roman Reigns. History Second return and feud with The Wyatts and The Authority (2015) Following a feud between James Harrison and The Authority Harrison decided to secretly reform the group to take on The Authority the third incarnation of the group comprised of three former members of The Authority in Randy Orton, Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose and Natalya who had been part of a the second incarnation. Along with The Authority the group began to feud with The Wyatt Family after the group began attackin Orton, Reigns and Ambrose. The groups leader James Harrison would then attack the group following a blackout attack hitting a chokeslam on Luke Harper and a ''Tombstone Piledriver ''on Bray Wyatt. The Wyatts would then add Braun Strowman to the group after they continued to attack The Empire they added a fifth member in Cesaro. At SummerSlam (2015) all of the members would walk out of the event with a championship, in the fouth match of the night Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose picked up the WWE Tag Team Championship defeating defending champions The Prime Time Players, The New Day and The Wyatt Family. Natalya won a Fatal 4-Way against Sasha Banks, Paige and Alicia Fox for the WWE Divas and WWE Women's Championship this made her the first and still only person to hold both titles at the same time. Harrison defended his WWE United States Championship against Mark Henry, Cesaro collected Million Dollar Championship beating Kevin Owens. Randy Orton won the WWE World Heavyweight Championship beating Seth Rollins by cashing in his Money in the Bank contract that he won from Sheamus at Battleground (2015). Natalya lost her WWE Women's Championship to Brie Bella at Night of Champions (2015). All other titles were successfully defended at Night of Champions. Orton was forced to vacate his WWE World Heavyweight Championship on ''Raw ''on November 2, 2015 due to injury that he got at Hell in a Cell (2015) and it was revealed he may not be back in time for WrestleMania 32. After the extent of Orton's injury was revealed it was announced Orton would leave the group and on the November 12, 2015 episode of ''SmackDown! ''he was replaced by The Usos who were also feuding with The Wyatt Family. Feud with The League of Nations and Bullet Club (2015) The feud between The Empire of Pain and The League of Nations began after they attacked Roman Reigns following his victory at Survivor Series. It was announced on December 12, 2015 that Cesaro's shoulder injury was worse than first thought and he wouldn't return in 2015 thus he vacated his Million Dollar and European Championships and also left the group for these reasons. This rivalry reached boiling point at TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs where it began with Harrison defeating King Barrett in a brutal ladder match for the United States Championship. Reigns would then defeat Sheamus in a TLC match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship before attacking The League of Nations and then on Harrison's orders attacked Triple H. The next night on ''Raw ''Harrison jokingly said Reigns would be punished by not allowing him to Royal Rumble and said Reigns had to defend his title in a no holds barred match against Sheamus which Reigns won. On December 7, The Empire attacked Rusev, Alberto Del Rio and King Barrett backstage whilst the attack was broadcast live on the titantron to Sheamus who was in-ring, group lead James Harrison warned Sheamus that this was just the start and the attacks would not stop and he also warned Finn Bálor that the Bullet Club were a target as well. On December 21, 2015 Stephanie McMahon began the ''Raw ''by talking about Reigns attack but was interupted by Harrison who told her that he had ordered Reigns not to confront Stephanie that day. As McMahon began to talk about having to watch her family being attack, Harrison interupted stating that her husband Triple H was fine as he had appeared at NXT TakeOver: London. Harrison also said he had been forced to watch he own brother, sister and three brothers in-law get attacked. Members Current members Former members Timeline ImageSize = width:700 height:auto barincrement:25 PlotArea = left:100 bottom:60 top:0 right:50 Alignbars = justify DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:14/02/1999 till:31/12/2015 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy Colors = id:leader value:red legend:Leader id:member value:green legend:Member id:valet value:blue legend:Valet id:bars value:gray(0.93) legend = orientation:horizontal position:bottom BackgroundColors = bars:bars ScaleMajor = increment:2 start:2000 ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:1 start:2000 BarData = bar:Harrison text:"James Harrison" bar:Austin text:"Steve Austin" bar:Viscera text:"Viscera" bar:Rock text:"The Rock" bar:Undertaker text:"The Undertaker" bar:Farooq text:"Farooq" bar:Bradshaw text:"Bradshaw" bar:Victoria text:"Victoria" bar:Lesnar text:"Brock Lesnar bar:Michaels text:"Shawn Michaels" bar:Nash text:"Kevin Nash" bar:Mysterio text:"Rey Mysterio" bar:Lashley text:"Bobby Lashley" bar:Edge text:"Edge" bar:Kane text:"Kane" bar:Carlito text:"Carlito" bar:Primo text:"Primo" bar:Punk text:"CM Punk" bar:Miz text:"The Miz" bar:Kelly text:"Kelly Kelly" bar:Natalya text:"Natalya" bar:Ambrose text:"Dean Ambrose" bar:Orton text:"Randy Orton" bar:Reigns text:"Roman Reigns" bar:Cesaro text:"Cesaro" bar:Jey text:"Jey Uso" bar:Jimmy text:"Jimmy Uso" bar:Ana text:"Ana Sanchez" PlotData= width:10 textcolor:black align:left anchor:from shift:(10,-4) bar:Harrison from:14/02/1999 till:16/05/2004 color:Leader bar:Harrison from:21/05/2006 till:02/10/2011 color:Leader bar:Harrison from:23/07/2012 till:23/07/2012 color:Leader bar:Harrison from:27/07/2015 till:end color:Leader bar:Austin from:14/02/1999 till:30/03/2003 color:Member bar:Austin from:23/07/2012 till:23/07/2012 color:Member bar:Viscera from:14/02/1999 till:31/08/2000 color:Member bar:Viscera from:23/07/2012 till:23/07/2012 color:Member bar:Rock from:14/02/1999 till:27/04/2003 color:Member bar:Rock from:23/07/2012 till:23/07/2012 color:Member bar:Undertaker from:19/05/2002 till:16/05/2004 color:Member bar:Farooq from:17/02/2002 till:20/10/2002 color:Member bar:Bradshaw from:17/02/2002 till:20/10/2002 color:Member bar:Victoria from:15/12/2002 till:16/05/2004 color:Valet bar:Lesnar from:30/03/2003 till:16/05/2004 color:Member bar:Michaels from:23/02/2003 till:24/06/2003 color:Member bar:Michaels from:01/06/2008 till:25/01/2009 color:Member bar:Nash from:07/06/2003 till:24/08/2003 color:Member bar:Mysterio from:21/05/2006 till:02/10/2011 color:Member bar:Lashley from:21/05/2006 till:03/12/2006 color:Member bar:Edge from:01/01/2007 till:24/06/2007 color:Member bar:Kane from:28/10/2007 till:17/02/2008 color:Member bar:Natalya from:25/11/2008 till:02/10/2011 color:Valet bar:Natalya from:27/07/2015 till:25/10/2015 color:Valet bar:Carlito from:05/04/2009 till:26/04/2009 color:Member bar:Primo from:05/04/2009 till:26/04/2009 color:Member bar:Punk from:20/02/2011 till:02/10/2011 color:Member bar:Miz from:03/04/2011 till:04/04/2011 color:Member bar:Kelly from:14/08/2011 till:02/10/2011 color:Valet bar:Ambrose from:27/07/2015 till:end color:Member bar:Orton from:27/07/2015 till:02/11/2015 color:Member bar:Reigns from:27/07/2015 till:09/12/2015 color:Member bar:Reigns from:10/12/2015 till:end color:Leader bar:Cesaro from:17/08/2015 till:12/12/2015 color:Member bar:Jey from:12/11/2015 till:end color:Member bar:Jimmy from:12/11/2015 till:end color:Member bar:Ana from:23/11/2015 till:end color:Member In Wrestling *'Triple team finishing moves **'Triple powerbomb (Any three members) **Spear (Reigns) and double diving splash (Jimmy and Jey Uso) combination **Superman punch (Reigns), Dirty Deeds ''(Ambrose) and ''Tombstone Piledriver/F-5 ''(Harrison) combination **Double superkick (both Usos) and pop-up elbow smash (Harrison) combination **Double superkick (both Usos) and ''Tombstone Piledriver/F-5 ''(Harrison) combination **Double superkick (both Usos) and spear (Reigns) combination **Double superkick (both Usos) and ''Dirty Deeds ''(Ambrose) combination *'Double team finishing moves''' **'Double diving splash (Jimmy and Jey Uso) **Clothesline (Harrison) and spear (Reigns) comination **Spike Tombstone Piledriver ''(Harrison and Ambrose) **Superman punch (Reigns) and ''Dirty Deeds ''(Ambrose) combination **Chokeslam (Harrison) and diving splash (Jimmy/Jey Uso) combination **Superman punch (Harrison/Reigns) and ''RKO/Bull Hammer ''(Sanchez) combination **Superman punch (Reigns) and pop-up elbow smash (Harrison) combination *'Finishing moves''' **'James Harrison' ***'Tombstone Piledriver ''(Kneeling reverse piledriver) ***''F-5 ''(Fireman's carry facebuster) ***Pop-up elbow smash (rarely used) **'Dean Ambrose''' ***Dirty Deeds (Snap double underhook DDT) **'Roman Reigns ***'Spear **'Jey Uso' ***'Diving splash **'Jimmy Uso' ***'Diving splash **'Ana Sanchez' ***Bull Hammer (High-impact elbow smash) ***''RKO ''(Jumping cutter) *'Nicknames **'The Empire' **The (Backstreet) Gang *'Entrance Themes' **"Master of Puppets" (February 14, 1999–March 26, 2001) **'"The Game"' by Disturbed (April 1, 2001–May 16, 2004, May 21, 2006–October 2, 2011, July 23, 2012, July 27, 2015–present) Championships and Accomplishments *''Pro Wrestling Illustrated'' **Ranked Natalya 1''' of the top 50 female wrestlers in the PWI Female 50 in 2015. **Ranked Harrison '''2 '''of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2015. **Ranked Orton '''3 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2015. **Ranked Sanchez 3''' of the top 50 female wrestlers in the PWI Female 50 in 2015. **Ranked Reigns '''4 '''of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2015. **Ranked Ambrose '''8 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2015. **Ranked Cesaro 12 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2015. **Ranked Jimmy Uso 30 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2015. **Ranked Jey Uso 61 'of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2015. *'WWE **WWE (World Heavyweight) Championship (19 times) – The Rock (5), James Harrison (4), Stone Cold Steve Austin (4), Brock Lesnar (2), Randy Orton (1), Rey Mysterio (1), Roman Reigns (1; current) The Undertaker (1) **World Heavyweight Championship (7 times) – James Harrison (5), Rey Mysterio (2) **WWE United States Championship (3 times) – James Harrison (3; current) **WWE Intercontinental Championship (6 times) – James Harrison (3), Rey Mysterio (2), Dean Ambrose (1; current) **WWE European Championship (5 times) – James Harrison (4), Cesaro (1) **WWE Hardcore Championship (53 times) – James Harrison (25), Dean Ambrose (12), Roman Reigns (11), Randy Orton (3), Cesaro (1), Viscera (1) **ECW Championship (1 time) – James Harrison (1) **WWE Tag Team Championship (3 times) – James Harrison (2), Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, Jimmy Uso, Jey Uso (1*; current) **Million Dollar Championship (1 time) – Cesaro (1) **World Tag Team Championship (11 times) – James Harrison (7), The Rock (4) **WWE Divas Championship (2 times) – Natalya (1), Ana Sanchez (1; current) **WWE Women's Championship (2 times) – Victoria (2) **Royal Rumble (3 times) – James Harrison (1), Stone Cold Steve Austin (1), The Rock (1) *This is classed as a combined reign defending through the free bird rule.